Diary Dates

International Women's Day 2017

"I am proud to be a girl. We girls can change the world!" Malala Yousafzai

We are proud of being a community that celebrates and champions equality and diversity and we could not be prouder of our Year 7 girls who formed the International Women's Day Committee and created this year's celebrations at Woodside. Over the past few months, Razaan Van Zyl, 7Y, Yanita Krumova, 7T, Salma Ali, 7T, Patricia Ssonko, 7I, Angelica Butt, 7I, Fahma Adam, 7I, Jabiah Murshida, 7L and Dominique Ongoulou, 7T have been working hard on their plans for the day. It began with a vision and ambition - they wanted to raise awareness, invite inspirational women to visit, fundraise and celebrate. They achieved all of their goals. They wrote and presented a special assembly, held a bakesale, made and sold badges with feminist slogans on them, designed special posters and, in honour of this year’s theme, "Be bold for change" the International Women’s Day Committee invited representatives from Visible Women - an organisation that works to raise aspirations, promote mentoring and champion role models by creating a network of aspiring, emerging and pioneering women and girls. In addition to being our guest speakers in assembly, Visible Women also delivered a workshop to girls in Years 7 and 8 afterwards on how to develop their skills, and it was an absolute honour to have Cheryl Booth - a leader in the financial services and IT industries as well as a software developer and business-owner, visit and work with our students. We were also delighted to have Ruth Sacks, Director of Business Development, Westminster Business School and Principal Lecturer for the Department of Leadership and Professional Development work with us. Our students really benefited from hearing from such inspirational women who are leading in their fields. Students particularly liked the quote from Oprah Winfrey that Cheryl told them - "I was raised to believe that excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism. And that's how I operate my life." Afterwards, Ruth Sacks tweeted "Inspirational morning @woodsidehigh with @visible_women. Wonderful young women preparing for their future #beboldforchange Look out world!" "An excellent presentation @woodsidehigh for #beboldforchange on WHY #IWD17 followed by amazing dancing. Thanks to all."

The Committee gave up their lunchtimes and stayed after school to work on their plans. They worked together brilliantly - collaborating, supporting and encouraging one another. They showed great commitment and enthusiasm and should be incredibly proud of what they have achieved. They also raised an impressive £300 for Women's Aid and Breast Cancer Now - two very worthy charities who work to support women. Well done and many thanks to all.